


Would I Let You Walk Away?

by xhorizen



Series: An Unfortunate Affair [2]
Category: Hanson (Band)
Genre: Angst, F/M, I could tag something here but then it would ruin the whole fic so I'm not gonna, Implied Relationships, Implied/Referenced Cheating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-05
Updated: 2019-06-05
Packaged: 2020-04-08 12:15:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19106905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xhorizen/pseuds/xhorizen
Summary: Sequel toI Don't Want to Live A LieCan I forget about the way it feels to touch youAnd all about the good times that we've been through?Could I wake up without you every dayAnd would I let you walk away?Three months, eleven days, five hours, and some odd minutes Zac wasn’t too sure he had calculated correctly - that's how long he got to be happy before life seemed to tumble down around him.





	Would I Let You Walk Away?

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't intend to write a sequel to the first one, but oh well. Guess it happened. Let me know what you think!

Three months.

Three months and eleven days. 

Three months, eleven days, five hours, and some odd minutes Zac wasn’t too sure he had calculated correctly - that's how long he got to be happy before life seemed to tumble down around him. 

Zac lived his life always waiting for the other shoe to drop, he wasn’t dumb, he knew that life liked to fuck with him, give him the short end of the stick because he had been given so much as a kid. Karma is what he called it, and no one could talk him out of the fact that he had lifetimes of bad karma stacked against him. Add in the affair he had with his sister in law for eight years, fathering one of her children, and ruining his brothers marriage and he knew he was never set to be happy long term again. 

But with Natalie finally in his arms, all his, he had hope. And that’s where he went wrong. 

The morning after she showed up on his doorstep to tell him that Taylor knew all about their affair, she stayed the night, albeit on the couch. Zac slept next to her, the benefits of having an overly large sectional couch finally doing something in his favor. The bed was too intimate, they both decided, without saying a word, and he pulled a spare blanket over them both before wrapping his arms around her and pulling her back to his chest. He woke up for the first time in years without having been woken by the slightest sound and realized that she was the reason why. He hadn’t slept so peacefully since she left him, and having her back brought everything right back to where it had been, to where it should have always been. 

One week in, they talked about her moving into his house since it seemed obvious that Taylor was going to stay with the kids in their shared home. The prenup didn’t have an infidelity clause, fortunately, but Natalie admitted that she wanted to keep things as sane for her kids as she could - After all, it wasn’t their fault that their parents were getting divorced. Zac was ready to jump up and begin cleaning and making space for all of Natalie’s belongings, but in the end, they decided to wait because there really was no point in rushing things, not when they were finally together. It was worth it to Zac and to Natalie to do things the right way this time around. 

In the end, Taylor and Natalie decided that she would stay with the kids in the house and he would get an apartment by the studio short term, until he could buy a house that would house all six of their kids during visitation. Until that happened, Taylor would stay at the house during his visitation times and Natalie would stay with her mom in the guest room in her house. Zac silently thanked God that she didn’t ask Kate to stay with her, as far as he knew, Kate didn’t know about the affair and he still felt sick with guilt about the whole thing, so he would rather keep things as untangled as they could be. Well, until they had to tell Kate about them dating, anyway, and that was a conversation Zac was sure he would put off until the last possible second. 

One month in, Natalie staying at her mom’s house turned into Natalie staying with Zac more often than not. They tried to keep the pretense up that it was just because she was tired and it was more practical for her to stay over anyway, but they couldn’t even sell themselves the lie - They wanted to be together as much as possible and were going to do it, apparently, even if it was ill advised. Zac still got a flutter in his chest every morning that he woke up and she was laying next to him. They normally went to sleep curled up in each other, and sometimes would wake up that way, but more often than not, Natalie would be on her side, curled into herself, with her hair fanning out on the pillow behind her. He felt like a total creep even admitting it to himself, but he’d spent a lot of time just watching her sleep, a small smile on his face the entire time. She caught him once, and he tried to deny that he’d been doing anything, but she just laughed before pulling him on top of her and initiating the best morning sex he’d had in his life. 

Two months in, everything was great. They laughed all the time, they could barely stand to be apart from each other. When Natalie was staying at her house with the kids, Zac was over more often than he’d been in the whole time he had lived next to them, and while the younger kids loved having Uncle Zac around, he knew the older ones were getting a little suspicious. Afterall, he was their dad’s brother, shouldn’t he come around when their dad was watching them? It was perfectly logical reasoning and Zac often felt himself growing self conscious that Ezra and Penny, and probably River, would start asking questions, asking things that neither he nor Natalie wanted to answer. 

He never stayed the night at Natalie and Taylor’s home. Even with the divorce underway, he still felt as though he was breaking some kind of rule by spending the night in his older brother’s home with his ex-wife. Nevermind the fact that, well, he’d had an ongoing affair with his ex-wife for years, but somehow this felt like more, felt like crossing the line in every single wrong way possible. Living next door had its benefits, but even having to walk down the road at two in the morning was a daunting task, one he didn’t look forward to and one he tried to avoid. Natalie suggested he stay in the guest room anytime he wanted to, but that still felt like too much of a slap in the face to his older brother. 

Taylor and he hadn’t talked since the day Taylor found out about the affair. Zac thought about reaching out to him a few times, and even did, once, though the phone rang once and was immediately pushed to voicemail - Message received loud and clear. He couldn’t blame Taylor, he doubted he would be able to forgive himself in the situation if he were in his brothers shoes, but he still had hope that maybe their relationship was salvageable. 

Three months in, Natalie had practically moved her wardrobe into Zac’s closet, giving him a giddy feeling every time he walked into it to get something to wear. Having someone else’s possessions fill the void was nice, but having Natalie’s possessions doing it was enough to make him want to smile and cry with happiness and write the stupidest, sappy love songs he’d ever written. He knew he was a mockery of himself, he’d made fun of people acting the way he wanted to his entire life, but he finally realized why he had been so cynical - He’d never been in love before.  
He hated saying it, even if he’d only ever admitted it to himself, because he felt like he was diminishing everything he and Kate had shared. Sure, it wasn’t that great, and by the end, things were downright terrible, but she was still the mother of his children and they still grew up together, that had to count for something? His entire life wasn’t a lie, he just wasn’t 100% fulfilled, and really that wasn’t anyone’s fault, it just happened. 

Oh, the things he tried to tell himself so that he didn’t wallow in self-pity. Sure, he was happy, happier than he’d ever been, ecstatic and in love and over the moon and whatever other positive adjective he could throw in there, but he still found himself thinking about the things he’d done in his life, and the poor choices he’d made, and then suddenly he was waiting for something to happen to take it all away, again. No matter how happy Zac was, the doubt lingered, even if he dared not acknowledge it. 

Three months, eleven days, five hours, and some odd minutes Zac wasn’t too sure he had calculated correctly in, Natalie came out of the bathroom with tears running down her eyes and a stick in her hand. Zac opened his mouth to ask her what was wrong, but his brain finally caught up with what he was seeing and he stopped short, his hands that were reaching for her falling to his side. 

“How?” Zac didn’t even recognize his own voice when it came out of his mouth, it was way too high pitched. Natalie took a step toward him before stopping and just shrugged. 

“I guess we weren’t as careful as we thought.” 

“I thought you were on the pill?” 

Natalie looked at him, a little stunned, before speaking. “I never said that. I haven’t gone back on it since Willa was born, why would you think I was on it now?” 

It was Zac’s turn to shrug. “Kate just always went back on it as soon as she could after giving birth.”

“Oh. Well. I’m sorry I’m not Kate then.” More tears fell down Natalie’s face as she walked around Zac and into the living room to collapse on the couch. Zac followed her and sat down next to her, though made sure not to touch her. 

“That’s not what I meant.” 

“I know.” Natalie sighed softly. “I know it’s not what you meant, but jesus Zac, we never talked about birth control, how stupid are we? You’d think one accidental teen pregnancy would be enough to teach us to practice safe sex.” 

“One?” Zac snorted in spite of himself. “Yeah, okay. Just one.” The glare Natalie sent his was told him he was treading on thin ice, but he couldn’t keep his mouth shut. “Your first three were accidents, Nat, come on, don’t try to play dumb with me, I’m not my mom.” 

“Yeah well I can say the same for your first two, Zachary, so I guess we’re even.” She threw the pregnancy test on the coffee table and curled her legs up underneath her before wrapping her arms around her middle. 

“How far along?” 

Natalie tightened her hold around her stomach and looked up at him with fresh tears forming in her eyes. 

“Probably further along than I’d expect. I’ve kind of been ignoring the symptoms for a while, I just chalked it up to stress about the divorce and the move. I’m probably close to four months along, if I calculated my last period correctly.” Zac opened his mouth, then shut it again when he realized what she’d said. Four months?

“Four months? That means…” 

Natalie bit her lower lip and nodded her head sadly before letting it drop back to the couch behind her. 

“What kind of woman doesn’t know what man’s child she’s carrying not once, but twice?” She started sobbing at the end of her sentence and Zac couldn’t help himself, he pressed into her side and slid an arm around her shoulders, pulling her into his embrace. She let her head fall to his shoulder as she started crying even harder than she’d cried the night Taylor confronted her about the affair. Zac wished he knew what to say because he hated seeing her in so much pain, but he didn’t know what to say. It was a sticky situation, and there were no words that could make it better. 

They sit together on the couch for what felt like hours, but when Zac looked at the clock, he was shocked to see that only half an hour had gone by. Natalie had managed to calm down enough to where she was only sniffling a little while she cried, and he pulled away a little, looking down into her face. 

“Can I ask you a question?” It was something he’d been thinking about asking for a while, but never got the nerve up, not to mention he knew it would probably hurt Natalie to no end, but they were already in pain, so why not just pile it on?

“Of course.” She wiped her face with her hands and took in a couple of deep breaths before Zac spoke again. 

“Did you file for divorce because Taylor found out about the affair?” 

The look on her face was enough to answer his question - Natalie looked like she had been punched in the face repeatedly, and he wanted to eat the words back up, wanted to do something to fix what he’d just broken. 

“Of course not!” She pulled away and scooted down the couch, away from Zac. “I had already had a meeting with my lawyer and filed the papers the week beforehand, I told you he was going to be served the week he found out! I told you that!” 

“I know, I know, I just, come on, you have to understand where I’m coming from here, of course I’d wonder!” He reached an arm out to place one hand on her shoulder, but she jerked away and got up from the couch, rushing to the front door. “Where are you going?” Zac jumped up and followed after her, but Natalie already had her purse over her shoulder and the front door halfway open. 

“I’m sorry that you think so little of me that you think I’d make you a second choice.” She whispered, her voice so low Zac almost didn’t hear her. She turned around and looked into his eyes, causing Zac to shiver seeing the intense pain and heartache that was crashing together inside of her. “I’ve made my mistakes, but I never thought I’d made any so big that you would think so low of me.” 

Zac wanted to protest, wanted to correct her, but she turned around and hurried out the door before he could gather his thoughts together enough to form a decent comeback. By the time he realized he needed to chase after her, her car was already halfway to the main road and he was stuck outside, alone, watching her leave. 

The other shoe had finally dropped.


End file.
